"Hope is my catalyst."

I have many random hobbies. One of which entails watching a lot of random YouTube videos about things that I just find intriguing for whatever reason.

For this post’s video, it is a comparison between the Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Power Rangers Samurai‘s “henshin” (transformation) sequences. Anyone who says they didn’t like Power Rangers back in the day is either A) lying or B) had no childhood. I remember the days where I would rush home immediately after the school bell rang just to make sure I didn’t miss an episode of Power Rangers. First-grade memories, yo.
Very nostalgic.

So today’s video is all about the transformation sequence. If there is one thing you should know about Japanese culture and their television/anime programs, it is the fact that Japan loves these sequences. Like, I mean a lot. To the max degree, really.

What this often means is the transformation sequences take a long time and are usually over the top and super cheesy. And, of course, the enemies cannot interrupt said transformation sequence because it would be very rude.

Take note the big differences, though. For instance, the Shinkenger one takes itself very seriously and makes it all dramatic, which I find to be very cool. I dock their sequence a point or two for the heroes openly shouting out their names during their roll call. Secret identity, please? Samurai, on the other hand, somehow made the transformation very corny and it definitely yields less impact than the Shinkenger one.

Side note: I have a very good attention to detail. A very keen one at that. If you watch the video closely, Samurai’s Green Ranger had to change his “action” for the Western audience. The Shinkenger Green Ranger slides his fingers across the edge of his sword, while the Samurai one instead just puts his blade past his left forearm.

I know this kind of stuff is geared toward children in general, but really? Is sliding your fingers along a SAMURAI SWORD really that bad? What about the fact that they are using katanas in the first place … Just seems rather moot. Meh, end of mini-rant.😛